Western Stars is Bruce Springsteen’s best solo album, and one of his best albums ever. It has some masterful songs: Stones, Wild Horses, Moonlight Motel; pieces with great pop hooks like There Goes My Miracle and Tucson Train. It’s the stealth Sgt. Pepper. But that’s not the main thing. The main thing, as Jeff Spevak as noted, http://www.jeffspevak.com/a-world-of-trouble-saved-by-springsteen/ is it’s what we need now. Just as we needed The Rising in 02.

It’s not about anger or acceptance. It’s about going to a place where the heart lives, where contentious voices shut up. That place where we don’t look at a person and say “Is he or isn’t he?” but “I know that feeling.”